National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Chap. IV]

NOTES ON SHEET No. 23   81

sqq.; for historical references to it, Serindia, i. pp. 293 sq.

The desert route (A-C. 1) keeps to the .southern edge of the sandy belt where vegetation, mostly in the form of scrubby jungle and tamarisk-cones, is supported by subsoil drainage. It thus shares the character of the route leading from Niya north-eastwards (Sheet No. 19); but here the foot of the glacis of the mountains is overrun by coarse drift-sand, rising to dunes of considerable height. The water found in wells along the route is very brackish, and the latter in consequence is scarcely ever used during the late spring and summer.

Astronomically observed latitudes.

Higher up stretches the bare glacis of piedmont gravel, broken by numerous deep-cut flood-beds (chap), but utterly waterless for the greatest part of the year. It is only near the heads of those valleys descending from the highest portions of the range that cultivation is carried on by small scattered hamlets of hillmen.

Corrections. A. 3. Symbol A of triangulation station to be inserted against Arpalik-chakil 15,500 ; also the route to it from C. 95.

D.2. The name Ueklnng to be shown against the triangulation station 10,690 above Gudi;che.

NOTES ON SHEET No.

The survey shown on the southern edge of this sheet is confined almost wholly to the traverse made along the high road passing from east to west through the Karashahr basin; this was followed in 1907 by myself and in 1915 by M. Muhammad Yakûb. As the compilation of this sheet was adjusted to the positions adopted for Turfân (Sheet No. 28) and Korla (No. 21. D. 1), the longitudes throughout are affected by the error in placing the latter town about 15' 30" too far west, as explained in the Notes on Sheet No. 21. While at Karashahr town the divergence from Mr. Clementi's and Gen. Pyewzow's fairly concordant longitude values is about the same as just noted for Korla, the difference at Kumush near the eastern edge of the sheet is reduced to about 9' as against Dr. Vaillant's longitude 88° 4',6. The latitudes shown for several stations along the route are derived from the observations recorded

24 (KARA-SHAHR)

by Mr. Clementi and various Russian explorers.

With the exception of the ground east and north-east of Kumush the whole of the area represented falls within the drainage of the Baghrash lake. The wide expanse of the latter, only roughly indicated in outline, affects the physical conditions of the whole Kara-shahr basin. They are briefly described in Serindia, iii. pp. 1178 sqq., where the historical topography of the district and the peculiar conditions impeding cultivation and permanent settlement within it have also been discussed.

Corrections. A-B. 4.   The upper
courses of the streams descending into the basin from the north between Ushak-tal and Kara-shahr ought to be shown in broken lines, as well as the hill contours adjoining.

D. 4. The well symbol at Kara-kizil Station ought to be shifted close to road.

This sheet shows the surveys made north and south of the westernmost Kuruk-tâgh and along portions of the courses of the Târim and Konche-dary5 lying south of it. The former belong to the work of the second and third expeditions, the latter exclusively to that of the years 1914-15.

The several traverses were adjusted to the positions adopted for Korla and Altmish

bulak before the re-examination of R. B. Lai Singh's triangulation had proved the serious error made in the connection, as explained in Appendix A and the Notes on Sheets Nos. 21 and 29. In consequence all places in this sheet appear considerably to the west of their correct longitudes.

For the very numerous points in the Kuruk-tâgh shown by this sheet as trigono.